Ready: Leaders to Know, with Bill Graves

Today on Ready: Leaders to Know, I sit down with Josh Keller, Communications Director at SEIU Minnesota State Council. Josh grew up in a working-class home in Brooklyn Park, where mutual aid was just what you do. Today, he carries those values into his leadership at the SEIU State Council, where his career has been defined by a single mission: shifting power back to the people.From his early days in AmeriCorps to his leadership in the labor movement, Josh has remained focused on addressing structural racial and economic disparities by building collective power. In today’s high-stakes political climate, his work reminds us that unions aren’t just about contracts, they are the engine for solidarity and lasting change.

Today on Ready: Leaders to Know, I sit down with Raihl O'Malley, Co-Founder, Director and Principal Consultant to Learning to Transform. Raihl grew up in Northfield, Minnesota, in a family where activism was part of everyday life, his mother protesting nuclear power, his father elected to public office as a teenager. But one of the most formative spaces in his life wasn’t a campaign or a classroom, it was a youth center run entirely by young people. There, Raihl learned what shared leadership looks like, chairing meetings, organizing events, and discovering that those most impacted by decisions should help lead them. That belief has guided his work ever since, from global studies and time living in Nicaragua, to training leaders and communities today. At the core of his work is a simple but radical idea: leadership isn’t about control, it’s about creating space for people to act together.

Today on Ready: Leaders to Know, I sit down with Audua Pugh, a recovered drug user, community organizer, business owner, published author, educator, inspirational speaker and motivator, who is not shy about sharing her story of a 15 year struggle with drug and alcohol use. She is an only child raised by a strong single mother who taught her accountability, self-advocacy, and the power of using your voice for others. Audua’s journey includes extraordinary resilience—surviving cardiac arrest after a rare heart condition, navigating chronic illness, and overcoming breast cancer. When her path changed, so did her purpose.Today, she’s a nonprofit founder, former executive director, caregiver to her mother, and a national ambassador for breast cancer awareness, building healing, justice, and community wherever she goes.

Today on Ready: Leaders to Know, I sit down with Tawny Savage, Business owner, Violence Prevention Coordinator for the  Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) and MSW, Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Tawny was raised on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation in northern Nevada, a rural and isolated community that shaped her deep sense of responsibility and care for others. One of the most powerful influences in her life was her grandmother, a community health nurse fluent in Shoshone, who modeled what it means to listen, serve, and stay rooted in community. At fifteen, Tawny left home for the first time to attend a youth leadership camp in the Wisconsin woods, she encountered mentors who recognized her potential and helped her see her own strength.That was a turning point in her life, one that continues to inform her work today: advocating for safety, dignity, and justice for Indigenous communities, and ensuring the next generation knows their voices matter.

Today on Ready: Leaders to Know, I sit down with C Scott Cooper, Experienced nonprofit and philanthropic leader, and a Professor at Metro State University. Scott grew up in Michigan in a family of educators, who taught him early that service to others is both a responsibility and a privilege. Reading with his mother, a children’s librarian, helped spark a lifelong moral compass rooted in stories about courage, justice, and responsibility. Those values carried him far beyond home. As a student abroad in Poland in 1989, he witnessed the fall of authoritarian regimes and even chipped a piece from the Berlin Wall, an experience that cemented his belief in people powered change. That belief eventually led him into public service, progressive organizing, and teaching others a central lesson he still wrestles with today: how to choose the right fight, at the right time.

Today on Ready: Leaders to Know, I sit down with Kowsar Mohamad, who was appointed by Governor Tim Walz to the University of Minnesota Board of Regents. Kowsar grew up in South Minneapolis, rooted in a Somali immigrant family and a neighborhood that functioned like a village. From organizing a youth council to holding policymakers accountable, her leadership was shaped early by collective responsibility and advocacy. Now an environmental planner, educator, and PhD candidate, she brings people together across difference, leading with empathy, systems thinking, and a deep belief that we’re stronger together

On this special edition of Ready: Leaders to Know, I sit down with Chicago-based film, television, and digital content director Ian Pfaff to talk about his first podcast series, Uncle Chris.What makes this episode especially unique is that Ian and I have been close friends since childhood. That relationship is front and center as we explore what it means to tell deeply personal stories through podcasting—and how the stories we tell about ourselves, quite literally in this case, evolve as we do.

Today on Ready: Leaders to Know, I sit down with HaoPay Lee, Legislative Liaison, MN Department of Employment and Economic Development HaoPay leads with a strength shaped by resilience, culture, and lived experience. She was raised by a mother who survived domestic violence and raised four children largely on her own, guided by a grandfather who was a respected leader in the Hmong community and a steady, loving presence in her life. Growing up, she experienced the gendered expectations placed on Hmong girls, lessons in silence, service, and self-erasure. Instead of accepting those limits, she transformed them. Through advocacy, healing-centered leadership, and community-building, she has created spaces where people who are often overlooked are finally seen and heard. This episode is about voice, survival, and redefining what leadership can look like.

Today on Ready: Leaders to Know, I sit down with Asia Yun-Robinson, she is an author, Parent Advocate and Mental Wellbeing Advocate. Asia is the eldest of four, raised in Minneapolis by a single mother in a multigenerational household that taught her caregiving, perseverance, and community. Influenced by her Choctaw grandmother, Asia learned early the values of humility and respect for the earth. At sixteen, therapy after a traumatic experience became a turning point, shaping how she supports others. Her path shifted again after surviving an abusive relationship that caused a traumatic brain injury and epilepsy, ending her dream of becoming a neurosurgeon but opening the door to advocacy. Today’s episode is about resilience, healing, and turning lived experience into leadership

Today on Ready: Leaders to Know, I sit down with Steve Grove, CEO and Publisher of the Minnesota Star Tribune, and the author of “How I Found Myself in the Midwest”. Steve has built a career at the intersection of public service, economic development, and civic leadership. From leading statewide crisis response as Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development under Tim Walz to now guiding one of the nation’s most influential regional newspapers through a period of profound transformation. Grove’s work reflects a consistent belief in the power of local institutions. His leadership during the crisis is grounded in the idea that trust, accountability, and meaningful change are built through local government, local journalism, and community partnerships. Today, he is steering the 158-year-old Star Tribune toward a digital future while preserving its civic mission and navigating an era defined by disruption and misinformation.